Payment cards, e.g., debit cards, credit cards, and the like, provide a convenient and widely used payment mechanism at merchant locations around the world. Transactions using a payment card are very often conducted electronically. A merchant location may have one or more terminal devices equipped to read data from a magnetic strip on a payment card, e.g., when the card is “swiped.” A terminal device may be connected to a network, and may thereby communicate with a payment processor. The payment processor may in turn communicate with the issuing institution via the network or some other network.
Processing rules for different payment cards may be different. For example, present merchant terminals may be configured to process credit card transactions differently than debit card transactions. However, present merchant terminals have not been configured to differentiate between various kinds of payment cards, but rather have required user input or a query to a payment processor to make such differentiation. Either way, use of payment terminals has been inefficient and cumbersome with respect to determining a type of payment card.
Further, different kinds of debit cards, e.g., pin-based debit cards and signature debit cards (also sometimes referred to as check cards) have historically been treated differently. For example, pin-based debit cards have historically been associated with being able to assess a service fee charged by a merchant, whereas signature debit cards, due to card payment network restrictions, have not.